Wikimedia District of Columbia will conduct Wikimedia outreach in the Washington, D.C. area as described in the chapter's Annual Plan for 2012-2013. We will offer programs in five thematic areas: academic and educational outreach, cultural outreach, government outreach and engagement, international and diplomatic outreach, and public outreach and education.

This statement describes what will be accomplished if the project is successful.

The goals of Wikimedia District of Columbia's outreach in fiscal year 2012–13:

Reach out to Washington by:

Collaborating with at least two institutions in each sector (as explained in this proposal) through events open to the public as well as consultations, trainings, and contribution drives. This includes a planned GLAM Boot Camp, our flagship event of 2013.

Holding at least one or two events per month, including both educational and social events.

Provide a list of measurable criteria will you use to determine if your project was successful. You will need to report on the success of your project according to these measures after your project is completed.

Success of this project will be measured by:

The numbers and diversity of events and projects (e.g., editathons, content contributions, consultations with institutions)

Documentation of editors and contributions at our local outreach events

Documentation of our projects and their outcomes on the Wikimedia DC website

Measures of participation in, and media coverage of, Wikimedia DC and its events

We are planning a GLAM Boot Camp at the National Archives on April 26-28. Last year at GLAMcamp London, we identified the lack of broad community participation from different types of contributors as one of the GLAM-Wiki effort's key problems (see notes). It limits the ability of potential projects to get off the ground and it makes the effort as a whole more cliquish. The GLAM Boot Camp is a new model of event in which people with extensive backgrounds in GLAM-Wiki projects will give a workshop share experiences and teach skills relevant to the GLAM-Wiki effort for attendees. The idea behind the Boot Camp is to give experienced Wikimedians the skillset and confidence they need to engage in GLAM-Wiki projects so that, ultimately, GLAM-Wiki will be more representative of the regular Wikimedia editing community.

The three-day event will consist of group discussions, hands-on tutorials, and talks given by experienced GLAM-Wiki editors like Dominic McDevitt-Parks, Lori Byrd Phillips, and Sarah Stierch as well as GLAM professionals from institutions like the National Archives (the host) and the Smithsonian. We are expecting approximately 15 attendees from around North America to come to Washington, D.C. for the event, where they will be able to meet with the GLAM-Wiki US Consortium advisory board and share experiences. We are specifically inviting Wikimedians who are established Wikipedians in good standing and may have an interest or talent for real-world outreach. The main expense will be travel costs for the attendees; the venue is provided free of charge by the National Archives.

We plan to work closely with the Wikipedia Education Program to coordinate outreach to academic institutions and events in the DC region. A number of local academic institutions, including the George Washington University, the University of Maryland, and Georgetown University, have previously partnered with Wikimedia DC on events; these institutions are key targets for further collaboration in the coming year. We also plan to pursue partnerships with the Sunlight Foundation and similar organizations working to provide data to the public, which can benefit Wikidata and other Wikimedia projects.

Cultural outreach

Galleries, libraries, archives, and museums have been a point of focus for the Wikimedia movement worldwide. We plan to increase awareness of the Wikimedia projects among cultural institutions in the chapter's area of activity by holding training sessions and editing workshops and by encouraging the establishment of Wikipedian-in-Residence programs at these institutions. We will continue to partner actively with National Archives (NARA) and the Smithsonian, we will focus on significant cultural institutions such as the Library of Congress, the DC Public Library, and the Historical Society of Washington. We will encourage cultural institutions to contribute free content directly to Wikimedia projects.

Government outreach and engagement

We plan to facilitate workshops for federal employees who are interested in learning more on how to contribute to Wikimedia projects. In addition, we will encourage our members to remain current on legislative issues regarding information freedom and the Internet, and shall work to inform the public of the values of our mission and relevant legislation. This will include working with government agencies and organizations that share our goals. One objective is to make government data available that can be used by Wikidata.

International and diplomatic outreach

As Wikimedia is an international movement, a healthy relationship with the many embassies in Washington can facilitate future international consultation and collaborations. We will continue to reach out to embassies, partner with them to host events, and encourage them to contribute to the Wikimedia projects. Our first international outreach event was in April 2012 with the Estonian Embassy on Internet Freedom, and was followed in July with a cultural event at the Austrian Embassy. During Wikimania, Wikimedia DC built contacts and relationships with ministers and cultural attachés at the Russian, Australian, French, Polish, Mexican, Swedish, Swiss, and Hungarian Embassies. We would like to hold other international outreach events with embassy staff as well as other DC-based organizations, such as Young Professionals in Foreign Policy, Cultural Tourism DC, and the Goethe Institute.

Public outreach and education

As evidenced by the success of the Wikimania 2012 conference and the events held in its wake, there is widespread interest in Wikipedia in our region. We will continue to hold public events, including training sessions and editing workshops, in order to foster a community around this interest, to increase awareness of the Wikimedia movement's goals, and to increase interest in contributing to Wikimedia projects.

In budgeting for these outreach events, we have reduced our budget considerably from last year. This is because we have achieved significant cost savings by partnering with other institutions.

We are looking forward to organizing Wiki Loves Monuments in 2013. Wiki Loves Monuments is an international photography contest held annually in September to increase coverage of national landmarks and feats of architecture on Wikimedia Commons. Last year, contributors from the United States uploaded over 22,000 photographs as part of the contest. Wikimedia DC facilitated the contest in 2012 by hosting the U.S. portal for the contest, WikiLovesMonuments.us, as well as by serving as fiscal agent. The Wiki Loves Monuments-related line items in the budget are to cover costs associated with the management of the event, including the purchase of prizes.

In addition to managing the contest, we are also looking forward to channeling the excitement of the contest into encouraging new contributors to the Wikimedia projects and new institutional partners for Wikimedia DC. Outreach events (as described above) in the fall will focus on Wiki Loves Monuments, including monuments photo drives, edit-a-thons, and an exhibition of finalists modeled after last year's successful event, held at the National Press Club.

Provide a detailed breakdown of project expenses according to the instructions here

Note that grantees are subject to line-item scrutiny of expenses. Changes to the approved budget beyond 10% in any category must be approved in advance.

Item

Budget

Note

GLAM Boot Camp

Travel

$4,500

Based on anticipated $300/person for air or rail travel for 15 people.

Accommodations

$1,710

Based on 15 beds at $38/night for 3 nights.

Catering and per diem

$1,575

We will be providing light refreshments during the conference. Leftover money from this line item will be used to provide a per diem, to save costs on the in-house catering at NARA

Incidentals

$215

Outreach events

Embassy event(s)

$1,500

Venue fees and/or co-sponsorship. Cost projection is based on our experience with embassy events in 2012.

Other outreach events

$2,000

Calculated based on an estimated cost of $400 per event for five events, covering costs of catering and/or venue. Cost projection is based on the typical cost for a Wikimedia DC-sponsored outreach event in 2012.

Wiki Loves Monuments

Prizes

$1,500

Based on last year's prize budget.

Exhibition

$750

Covers printing costs and event hosting expenses. Cost projection is based on our exhibition last year.

This section is optional. It may be used to highlight the grantee's potential for successfully executing this project.

Consider including the following information:

List of team members (names or usernames)::

Onwiki evidence of community support (such as a project about this discussion):

Endorsements from community members or movement groups:

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Evidence of past success in executing similar projects:

Since 2010, Wikimedia DC volunteers have established cultural outreach initiatives, including collaboration with the National Archives and Records Administration (supported by their Wikipedian-in-Residence), the Smithsonian Institution (also with a Wikipedian-in-Residence), the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore Heritage, and the District of Columbia Public Library (DCPL). We have organized numerous events, including WikiXDC (our 10th Wikipedia anniversary event and symposium), GLAM Baltimore, hackathons, edit-a-thons, workshops, and scan-a-thons.

Over the course of these three years our organizational efforts have increased in sophistication. In 2011 we organized a Wikimedia chapter, in 2012 we conducted the massive Wikimania 2012 conference, and in 2013 we have both an annual plan and budget to guide our efforts and focus our priorities for the year. We have completed the administration of two Wikimedia Foundation grants: Events 2012 and Wiki Loves Monuments 2012 USA, with the bootstrapping grant to be completed this year. These grants have been crucial in Wikimedia DC's development, and we appreciate our partnership with the Wikimedia Foundation.

In 2013 we are dedicating our efforts to growing in numbers—more members, more institutional partnerships, more leadership opportunities in the organization, and more effort in measuring our success. This focus on growth will allow Wikimedia DC to sustain itself as an organization as it pursues a long-term agenda in sewing interest in, and involvement with, the Wikimedia projects in our chapter's region.

This section will describe how the proposed project is related to the Wikimedia mission and Wikimedia's strategic priorities. It will also provide information about other benefits to Wikimedia communities.

In FY2013, we will increase outreach to the strategically valuable cultural sector and to diplomatic and government audiences. Our outreach effort will improve understanding and awareness of the values of the Wikimedia movement, and bring these audiences into contact with the live, credible individuals with names and faces to represent our website. This connection to individuals and institutions not considered traditional Wikipedia contributors will help to sustain the growth and improvement of Wikimedia projects in the coming years. Outreach to the diverse editor base of specialists available in Washington, DC also allows Wikimedia DC to continue to experiment with ways to attract and train new editors who have the knowledge base and technical abilities to improve the quality of our encyclopedia. Additionally, this grant will support our efforts to grow in membership, increase our human capital, and become a sustainable organization that can work to develop the Wikimedia projects in the long term.

If your project will benefit a specific online community, please list that here. For example, English Wiktionary.

Wiki Loves Monuments and related photo drives will largely benefit Wikimedia Commons, and open data will benefit Wikidata and Wikisource. Our general editing events will mostly focus on the English Wikipedia.

Provide a brief statement (about 1 paragraph) about how your project is related to other work in the Wikimedia movement. Does your project fit into a work area such as GLAM, Education, Organization Development, Editor Retention, or Outreach?

Yes, the projects fits with several work areas and the long-term goals of the Wikimedia Foundation. Our outreach grant request is intended for engagement with local cultural institutions for example with our GLAM Boot Camp, both by increasing awareness of the Wikimedia movement's goals and values and by encouraging contributions of content from these institutions. We will be reaching out to universities in partnership with the Wiki Education Foundation, with other institutional sectors, and with the general public through regional events and strategic partnerships. Our hope is to increase the local base of Wikimedia contributors which will lead to the growth of our organization.

If successful, does your project have the potential to be replicated successfully by other individuals, groups, or organizations? Please explain how in 1 - 2 sentences.

With adequate documentation of our experience with outreach in the Washington, DC area, Wikimedians throughout the country and the world will be able to learn from our experience.

Please list any other benefits that this project will produce.

Editing events will focus on improvements of Wikipedia articles on under-covered subjects, including the fine arts. More social events will also foster a stronger Wikimedia community that will improve our organizational capacity.

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